Newport-Mesa schools chief convicted of two felonies

Jan. 23, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 12:28 p.m.

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Newport-Mesa Superintendent Jeffrey Hubbard, center, and a companion, right, exit the Santa Monica Courthouse with his attorney Salvatore P. Ciulla, in December 2010. Hubbard, 54, was convicted Monday of two felonies for giving an employee raises without board approval when he headed the Beverly Hills Unified School District. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Newport-Mesa Unified board members will convene an emergency session to discuss the conviction of Superintendent Jeffrey Hubbard on two felony charges related to actions he took while head of the Beverly Hills Unified School District.

Newport-Mesa Superintendent Jeffrey Hubbard, center, and a companion, right, exit the Santa Monica Courthouse with his attorney Salvatore P. Ciulla, in December 2010. Hubbard, 54, was convicted Monday of two felonies for giving an employee raises without board approval when he headed the Beverly Hills Unified School District. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Newport-Mesa schools chief Jeffrey Hubbard was found guilty Monday of two counts of felony misappropriation for giving illegal pay raises to a favored employee during his tenure at Beverly Hills Unified School District.

Hubbard, 54, faces up to five years in prison and the loss of his teaching credential. He was found not guilty of a third count of misappropriation involving another employee.

Newport-Mesa school board member Dave Brooks, who attended the trial, said the board would hold a special meeting within the next few days to decide what to do with Hubbard’s position.

“Having sat through the whole trial, I really can’t believe it,” said a visibly stricken Brooks.

Hubbard sat emotionless at the defense table as the clerk read the verdicts that will change his life. His attorney, Sal Ciulla, said he had not talked with Hubbard about an appeal.

Sentencing is set for Feb. 23.

The case against Hubbard was centered on three memos directing staff to put former Beverly Hills human resources official Nora Roque on a salary track that would raise her pay by $20,000 in five years; give former facilities director Karen Christiansen a $20,000 bonus and raise her car allowance by $350 monthly.

Hubbard was found not guilty of the charge involving Roque, but guilty of the charges involving Christiansen, 53.

Prosecutors contended the memos were not requests but unauthorized orders from Hubbard.

Hubbard testified the memos were written under direction from the school board and that he assumed the proper paperwork had been brought back to the board for approval.

In Roque’s case, Hubbard said he adjusted her pay schedule because she had been hired at only $70,000 a year and hadn’t received a raise in three years. Roque ultimately followed Hubbard to Newport-Mesa, where she now is the director of classified personnel, earning $142,175 total compensation.

Roque is not charged with any wrongdoing.

As far as Christiansen, her workload had increased as well as her need to drive to other counties, Hubbard told jurors. Hubbard’s relationship with Christiansen was called into question after sexually charged emails were found between the two. A witness also testified last week she saw Christiansen getting up from Hubbard’s lap.

In a related case, Christiansen was recently sentenced to four years and four months in prison after being convicted of conflict of interest while at Beverly Hills Unified. Christiansen steered $2.2 million to her private consulting firm from a $334 million school construction bond she had championed.

During four days of testimony, Hubbard was painted by the prosecution as an arrogant bully who ordered underlings to process the pay raises, knowing that he did not have the approval of the school board. Huntsman fell short of describing a motive, other than to say Hubbard had a “special relationship” with Christiansen.

Ciulla argued that the pay raises could not have been processed without the proper approvals, regardless of whether school board members remember signing off on them. He added that if something was amiss, it was the human resources office that dropped the ball. Hubbard gave the directive, but counted on his subordinates to assemble the paperwork, Ciulla said.

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